"Why can the TARDIS only have 7 keys? Were we supposed to already know this? I thought he could unlock it by snapping his fingers? And can't the sonic open any lock?"

And Time Lords have always had a Victorian/Edwardian vibe to them, so the antiquated forms of address fit perfectly.

Davies had a pathological fear of continuity, though. He refused to even acknowledge the past eight regenerations of the Doctor until Julie Gardner convinced him to put that montage into "The Next Doctor".

And the buttons on the walls, too.

The robot thing especially worked because this is the same man/woman who once waited in a field in a scarecrow costume for absolutely no reason, just hoping the Doctor would wander past. It's exactly the kind of mind-fuckery s/he would pull.

Watch it again. The Doctor clearly says they're going to where Clara's timeline rejoins Danny's after his death.

I was pulling for the Rani, because the whole "human experimentation" angle seems more like her, but the new Master is good too.

He's indestructible. The whole universe knows that.

Because "mistress" is the correct female term of address that correlates to the male "master"?

Had an idea while watching. I know it's crazy, but I'm just spitballing here:

Since Aaron was an infant when Jacob died, I doubt it was supposed to be him.

It wasn't mainstream, but it definitely had a pop cultural following. Lots of alternative media coverage, hip young professors studying it in gender studies classes, etc.

I dunno, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was pushing that pretty hard at the end of season six.

In "Maternity Leave", in flashback, Tom actually does chastise Ethan for being so obvious about kidnapping Claire, to which Ethan protests that he was on the verge of being discovered.

And Claire, too.

"How could he have gotten the idea that THIS is a how the Rules of The Island work without it somehow coming from or being vetted by Richard?"

Hell, Locke did that back in season one, when he conked Sayid over the head and broke his transmitter. And again in season three, when he detonated the submarine.

Judging by how many crossed-out names there are on the wheel, including some of our main characters, people can obviously "fail" being candidates somehow.

Which, admit it, you could totally see Ben saying to the main characters.

That scene where "Locke" and Ben talk about what happened in the cabin supports that it was the Man in Black. The tone he takes is that of a curious observer, implying he was there, but he could never figure out Ben's motivation for doing it.